Patna College was established on 9th January 1863 to impart intermediate education but from 1865-66 this college stated imparting degree level education. Then, Patna College was affiliated unit of Calcutta University. Hence, Patna College is the oldest college of Bihar since British period. Patna College is said to be the mother of many prominent educational institutions in Bihar such as Patna Science College, Patna Training College, Bihar College of Engineering, Patna Law College, Patna Medical College, Vanijya Mahavidyalaya and many more. Various faculties had originated from Patna College. This college developed and flourished in the first decade of the twentieth century and became an independent institution on its own, where academic, intellectual ideas were invested and members of this college benefited from such ideas.

To say the least, Patna College continued to hold a position of pride being the only Government educational institution in imparting Post-Graduate education, and continued to remain the prominent English Medium educational institution even after the establishment of Government Colleges at Ranchi and Muzaffarpur for intermediate, graduate and Post-graduate education.

In 1952, it became constituent college of Patna University; earlier it was a Govt. College.

Patna College Studentsï¿½ Common Room, Central Committee and Patna College Athletic Club are common for both Patna College and Darbhanga House based Post-Graduate Students.

This is also discernable that almost all Hons. Classes of degree course in Arts of all colleges continued to be held in Patna College up to 1958, but with the increase in the number of students. Honours classes of various subjects started to be held in respective college by the end of 8th decade of the century. Even though, almost no change has occurred in the extra curricular activities of the students of the Human and Social Science faculty of Patna University and Patna College, because most of the old councils, staff clubs and hostels are still administered by the Principal of this college.

The degree classes of commerce was shifted to Patna College from the Law College in 1957 and was continued to be administered as a department of Patna College, known as B.Com classes but on a Sept. 1974, this department was separated from Patna College and a new Vanijya Mahavidyalaya was opened which is still situated in the premises of Patna College new building.

Patna College has to its credit more than 140 years of glorified tradition. This is the first college of Bihar which got the distinction of celebrating post centenary silver jubilee celebration in 1988. This college has been considered to be the seat of intellectual studies. Culture, discipline, expertise and excellence. This college has produced and nurtured many famous educationists, intellectuals, politicians, peopleï¿½s leaders, renowned advocates, legal luminaries, journalists, Doctorï¿½s, Govt. servants and administrators.

Some prominent personalities who were the alumni of this college include Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Jai Prakash Narayan, Dr. Sri Krishna Singh, Dr. Anugrah Narayan Singh, Sri Yashwant Sinha, and many more.

Media coverage of Patna College, Patna Bihar, Bihar

Bihars oldest college to revive royal link

Bihars oldest college, which turned 150 years old this month, is planning to revive a forgotten financial link with the bygone royalty by resuming distribution of scholarships and awards set up by the erstwhile princely families and philanthropists of yore.

Several senior clerks at Patna College in the Bihar capital are currently looking through old, dusty files and registers to draw up a complete list of the original donors so that their current descendants could be approached with requests for reviving the scholarships and awards. While these financial encouragements to meritorious students were discontinued by the college authorities decades ago without much intelligible cause, the funds donated regularly have piled up in various post offices and bank accounts.

Quite a few of these forgotten scholarships and awards for various subjects chosen by the donors had been instituted well before India became independent, said college officials. Most of the pre-Independence donors were the British and Indias royal and wealthy families.

We have decided to trace all the descendants of the original donor families and then approach them with a request to participate in a round-table discussion here to talk about reviving these glorious scholarships that somehow went missing from the institutions horizon. It is good to take up this initiative when Patna College has just proudly celebrated its 150th year of birth, said Patna University (PU) vice-chancellor Shambhu Nath Singh.

Donations lying in the banks and post offices for several decades are expected to be of considerably high value at current market rates. While the lowest amount pledged, `1,000, was for the John Abraham Award, the highest, `1.02 lakh, was for the Syed Kazi Raza Hussain Scholarship. PU officials hope the donations kept coming without a break even after the scholarships stopped being distributed.

The original donors rightful descendants, if traced out and eventually gathered at a meeting in Patna, would be given a choice to change the original subjects of study for the scholarships and awards, said Prof Singh. They can, if they want, include contemporary subjects and also make changes to the scholarship amounts, he added.

Established in 1862, Patna College has been an integral part of Bihars socio-political growth story. The first session of the Bihar Legislative Council was held in its seminar hall on January 20, 1913. The centenary celebrations were marked the event earlier this month.
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